Tactically, the Ligue de football professionnel has just taken a step towards us. This weekend, on every Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 pitch, the names on the players’ backs will be blurred. It’s for World Sight Day, with Essilor: the idea is to get fans to have their eyes tested.
Me, I’ve never had names on the back. Our shirts have iron-on numbers, and the 9 lost its loop in the third wash. For two seasons now my centre-forward has been a straight line. The referee calls him “Mister One.” I correct him, politely, the way you do with referees. He doesn’t correct himself.
So when I read that the blur will show up on the big screens, on the LED boards, all the way to the players’ entrance arch, I tell myself that in Lyon, for Lyon against Nice, they’re about to find out what my week looks like. The defender who turns round to see who he’s marking and has to go by the haircut. That, I run on Tuesday. Marking by silhouette.
Olivier Bramly said: “Football has a unique ability to bring people together and to get messages across to the greatest number.” I agree with him. With us, the message goes through the club delegate, who reads the numbers off his folder out loud before the match, and every Sunday somebody answers “present” for someone else.
Freddy, your 9 shaped like a 1 is a disgrace. I’m weighing my words. But for a prevention campaign, it’s almost historic.
There’ll also be an online eye test and a digital game built around the blur. I’m putting it through the dressing room. Not for the eyes. To finally find out who, in the team photo, is the lad at the back on the left who turns up at the bar but never at training.
It’s true, we checked: RMC Sport.
